Positive And Negative Impacts Of Social Media On Society

"Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth"~– John F. Kennedy. For many years young adults have been pressured to do things that they might not want to go through, even though the situation might be harmful to them or others. However they go through with it anyway because they feel the need to fit in with their peers. Conformity is defined as the change in behavior that arises from social influences that may be put on one in different situations, in order to fit in with a certain group. Although people may indulge with people who encourage good behaviors, but it usually ends with kids being encouraged to act with inhuman and savage actions.

Social media popularity has risen over the past years. The majority of the population of the age, now possesses one or more social accounts. Various articles and news sources have indicated that social media deteriorates person to person interaction and are gateways for cybercrimes to occur. However, behind such negative statements social media does provide a plethora of benefits to society. In fact, social media permits individuals to communicate, provides opportunities for businesses, and educates society.

As a child you are always told to not give into peer pressure via programs such as DARE or DFYIT that instruct us to not only stand up to peer pressure, but they also tell us to not shun or bully others. This is a problem for the human brain because as

In psychology, conformity is defined as the alteration of one’s beliefs and behaviors to better match those around you. There are typically two different forms of conformity, normative and informational. Normative conformity is becoming compliant to group pressure with the want to fit in. On the other hand, Information conformity refers to when a person looks to the group for guidance when they lack knowledge in a certain area. Conformity also can range in different levels such as from how people dress to how people act in public. This force is what drives even the most simple of decisions that a person will make on a daily basis. As a result, these individuals conform to other people’s behaviors. For example, just like a public compliance, which is when a person conforms to another’s behavior even if they do not necessarily believe or agree of the person’s words or actions. In society, conformity puts pressure on citizens to either conform to the laws they are given or face legal consequences. Conformity creates something called “group norms”, which are an informal set of social rules that are often unspoken. (Group Norms) When a person violates these norms, they will often find themselves in conflict with the rest of the group, and can potentially be removed.

How often is social media used, and for what reasons? 94% of teens say they use social media every day, and when used in an unsecure setting it can be harsh (Lenhart). With the pressure to fit into the “norm” of society, kids can often be cruel. Many teens become the subject of online bullying. This makes teens become self-conscious and depressed. Overall, the world today exposes society to many different forms of social media, which can often lead to cyberbullying.

As the world evolves society is being exposed to many different things. These factors playing a role in society has negative and positive effects. In deeper context; the variety of religion rates going higher, the latest fashion trends making full figured girls starve themselves, or the music that is out causing children to act up in school. They all have effects on society. They all play a part in the public society some kind of way. Social media is a huge factor for society. This factor has an effect on society communication skills. Social media also affects the people everyday life.

Social media is a very popular and widely used medium of entertainment in today’s society that allows people to connect and congregate from all over the world without having to leave the comfort of home. In order for many people to relieve social isolation and loneliness, social media unravels new pathways of communication and can be used to help people open up and express their opinions (Naruse). It can give people the chance to share and express their ideas to a large audience and receive feedback. Large and small businesses alike use this platform of communication in order to relay information about their products and services faster by using promotions and advertisements on social media websites. While social media has proven itself to be helpful and beneficial in today’s society, there are many studies that show how it can take quite a toll on the mental health and wellbeing of the people who constantly use it.

The well known essayist, Ralph Waldo Emerson, exerted his beliefs that conformity is something that independent individuals should not participate in through out his essay of “Self Reliance”. The Merriam Webster dictionary defines conformity as, “behavior that is the same as the behavior of most other people in a society, group, etc.” (“Conformity”). Emerson’s primary concern with conformity was the overbearing control that society had on a free individual. I agree that we should not change our morals and values if pressured from outside forces.

Deviant behavior is an integral part of all healthy societies. Deviance also offers society members an opportunity to rededicate themselves to their social controls. Deviant behavior actually helps teach society's rules by providing illustrations of violation. Deviance might be functional to a group in that it causes the group's members to close ranks, prompts the group to organize to limit future deviance acts, helps clarify for the group what it really does believe in, and teaches normal behavior by providing examples of rule violation. Finally, in some situations, tolerance of deviant behavior acts to a safety valve and actually prevents more serious instances of nonconformity.

“The influence of deviant peers is likely to be greater when they are slightly older and more deviant and when it is likely that the peers will interact outside the intervention setting. Similarly, participants who are in early adolescence and are already moderately deviant but are not yet committed to deviant behavior are the most susceptible to deviant peer influence.” (National Academy of Sciences 1) No one really understands how much friends can influence people especially if they are at a young age. Between the ages of 11-14, you’re trying you best to fit in and are willing to do whatever it takes in order to look

After debating whether social media has a positive or negative effect on teens, it has been concluded that social media has a negative impact on the developing teenager. Social media can be a great tool at times, by being a means to communicate with friends, classmates, and family members; It can also help spread your ideas, hobbies and life experiences. But after reading the article Studies Offer Mixed Messages On Social Media’s Effects On Young People, By The Baltimore Sun, it explains how social media has a negative effect on teens by causing them to compete (to have a better social media feed), change their body to fit into society (the ideal body shape) and the way it can makes someone feel.

Conversely, the evidence is that children and teenagers who associate with "bad elements" have usually been rejected by more normally-behaved children and have found friends among other rejected children (Harris, 2009). Certainly members of each of these groups will learn from each other once they begin to associate, in my opinion the important question is, what made them associate to begin with?

As pervious ethical issues have addressed, there may be issues encouraging non-deviant peers to spend time with deviant peers. In theory, it sounds fantastic to have non-deviant peers nudge their deviant peers to acceptable behavior. However, there is the possibility that the opposite could happen, which has failed to be addressed. The staff of this program would keep close watch on the groups actions and activities. The environment in this program would be controlled and because of this controlled environment it would serve as an easy way to ensure the opposite outcome would not happen. Furthermore, it is always important to be relevant and aware of the nudges around society and if they are a positive or negative nudge. For instance, when we are resisting temptation, who we are around could be influencing the bad temptation and decisions that we make. Therefore, realizing this connection could help make positive decisions or come up with creative ways to be able to make positive decisions. Moreover, by implementing the program outline throughout this paper an individual would be nudged to engaging in positive behaviors and making positive

How we communicate with other people around the world has always been a major conflict within the world. Clever designers are always trying to find a way to improve or make use of anything that can make the process of communication with each other more efficient than it already is. The general idea for people that create social media is to communicate in a well manner with anyone from a distance away. For example, Facebook has the biggest number of active users in any social media platform. Of course, there are social media platforms that can be abused in the way other than what they are created for. Even though the use of these different types of social media have a positive effect on our world every day, there also comes a various amount of negative effects that it has on everyone.

As stated by Internet Celebrity, Tanisha Marie, "baby showers are replacing weddings, Go Fund Me is replacing life insurance, DM's are replacing REAL dates, gum is replacing toothpaste, deodorant is replacing baths and social media is replacing real life interactions.” Through various research projects, such statements as Coach Tanisha Marie are proving to be true. Since the rise of Social Media outlets, personal interactions have become minimal yet proves to have both positive and negative effects on society as a whole.